Trump, Putin meeting depends on progress towards ending Ukraine war, says Marco Rubio

WASHINGTON - A possible meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin “will largely depend on whether we can make any progress on ending the war in Ukraine”, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Feb 20.

Mr Rubio said he discussed such a meeting when he met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Saudi Arabia on Feb 18, telling Mr Lavrov and Russian officials: “There isn’t going to be a meeting until we know what the meeting is going to be about.”

“I think when that meeting happens will largely depend on whether we can make any progress on ending the war in Ukraine,” Mr Rubio told journalist Catherine Herridge in an interview broadcast on social media platform X.

Following the talks in Saudi Arabia, Mr Trump – who

spoke on the phone to Mr Putin

last week – said on Feb 18 that he would probably meet Mr Putin before the end of February.

Mr Rubio said: “I don’t know the timing of it.”

Mr Rubio said Mr Trump wanted to know if Russia was serious about ending the war in Ukraine, triggered by

Moscow’s invasion of its neighbour

three years ago.

“The only way is to test them, to basically engage them and say, ‘Okay, are you serious about ending the war? And if so, what are your demands? Are your public demands and your private demands different?’” Mr Rubio said.

“The only thing we agreed upon is that we’re going to talk about peace. What they offer, what they’re willing to concede to, what they’re willing to consider, will determine whether they’re serious about peace or not,” he said. “We’re just not at that stage yet.”

Mr Trump’s bid to try and end the war left Ukraine and European allies concerned they would be cut out of any peace talks, but Mr Rubio said the US has consulted all.

Mr Rubio spoke amid a widening rift between Mr Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Mr Trump

denounced Mr Zelensky as “a dictator without elections”

on Feb 19 after Mr Zelensky said Mr Trump was trapped in a Russian disinformation bubble, a response to the US President suggesting Ukraine started the war.

“President Trump is very upset at President Zelensky,” Mr Rubio said. “We care about (Ukraine) because it has implications for our allies and ultimately to the world. There should be some level of gratitude here.”

Washington is also pushing Kyiv to quickly negotiate a deal to open up Ukraine’s natural wealth to US investment.

The US has provided tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine during the war, and Mr Trump has said US investment in Ukrainian minerals could ensure “that we’re going to, in some form, get this money back”.

Mr Rubio discussed a deal in a meeting with Mr Zelensky and US Vice-President J.D. Vance in Munich on Feb 14.

“We explained to them, ‘Look, we want to be in joint venture with you, not because we’re trying to steal from your country, but because we think that’s actually a security guarantee, because we’re your partner in an important economic endeavour,’” Mr Rubio told Ms Herridge.

“We get to get paid back some of the money... and also now we have a vested interest in the security of Ukraine,” he said. “And he said, ‘Sure, we want to do this deal. It makes all the sense in the world. The only thing is, I need to run it through my legislative process. They have to approve it.’”

Mr Rubio said he was upset to then see Mr Zelensky saying he had rejected the deal, because “that’s not what happened”. REUTERS